Professor and Pundit

CHESTERTOWN, MD—Political science professor Melissa Deckman has been busy on the media circuit, sharing her expertise on how religion and gender are affecting voter attitudes in the presidential election through appearances on nationally broadcast panels and in interviews with radio and print journalists.

At an October 22 event at the National Press Club in D.C., sponsored by Catholic University’s Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies and covered live by C-SPAN, she shared her research findings on the gender gap among Catholic voters. You can see C-SPAN video of her observations here.

The following day, as an Affiliated Scholar with the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), she participated in a panel discussion hosted by the Brookings Institution to announce the results of PRRI’s “2012 American Values Survey,” the organization’s annual comprehensive look at how values and beliefs affect voting behaviors. Deckman addressed several key areas of the survey: the correlation between religious affiliation and support for Romney or Obama, perceptions about the state of religious freedom in the U.S., and Tea Party opinions on social issues. Video of the event is available on the Brookings Institution Web site (Deckman’s segment begins about an hour into the video).

Most recently, she was videotaped talking about religion’s impact on the presidential election for a segment of the PBS show “Religion and Ethics NewsWeekly,” which is scheduled to air on PBS stations across the country starting Sunday morning, Nov. 4. (The show is carried locally on MPT2 that day at 6:30 a.m. and on Washington-based WETA at 10:30 a.m. For other station schedules, visit the show’s website.)

She also appeared on Baltimore’s WYPR radio to discuss the election with Midday Show host Dan Rodricks, and was quoted in a piece by Philadelphia Inquirer columnist John Baer.

“This election season has been busier than usual because being an Affiliated Scholar with the Public Religion Research Institute has brought exciting new opportunities,” says Deckman, who is the College’s Louis L. Goldstein Professor of Public Affairs. “As someone who has studied political behavior for a long time, I’ve enjoyed sharing my knowledge in these different settings.”

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